1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for communicating among a plurality of terminal devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a wireless network using IEEE 802.11, a BSS (Basic Service Set) is defined as a basic unit constituting a group of terminals that communicate with one another, and terminals that belong to the same BSS communicate with one another. A BSS is identified by a BSSID (Basic Service Set ID), and a unique value is assigned to a BSSID in the environment. Besides a BSSID, there exists an SSID (Service Set ID) that can be arbitrarily set to identify a BSS.
When using a wireless network using IEEE 802.11, a terminal needs to belong to any BSS. Therefore, a terminal searches (performs scanning) for a BSS that exists around the terminal. If the terminal knows the SSID of a desired group, the terminal needs to specify the SSID. On the other hand, if the terminal does not know the SSID, the terminal searches for all BSS's that exist around the terminal so as to select one SSID from SSID's that have been searched for.
Patent document No. 1 suggests a mechanism of establishing a BSS that is different for each application by setting an SSID including an application ID and allowing terminals that execute the same application to communicate with one another.
[Patent document No. 1] US Patent Publication No. 2006/0067290
According to patent document No. 1, since an SSID is set for each application, terminals that execute different applications cannot connect to one another. If a processing function of a terminal is improved such that the terminal can concurrently execute a plurality of applications, communication is made only for a single application in the mechanism described in patent document No. 1 since an SSID is set limitedly for a single application.